Alphonsus Nweze
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been cautioned in an unmistakeable terms to allow the Five- man Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) free hand to freely and morally determine the cases before it in accordance with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended and in line with the extant laws of the land.
A coalition of four pro-democry and hunan rights groups in a joint statement made available to newsmen weekend said: “The Justices of the PEPT must also be allowed by the presidency , the country’s spy Police Chiefs and regular Police authorities to freely and morally write and deliver their verdict popularly and independently and refrain from moves strongly suggestive of forcing scripted verdict on them prepared by the presidential ” evil geniuses” to be delivered by PEPT to Nigerians and the world.”
In the statement signed by Nze Emeka Umeagbalasi the groups called on Justice Tsanami Panel to ” morally and judicially” ensure that their verdict is decided according to the constitution and other extant laws devoid of technicalities and political orbiters or ethno-religious biases and divisions” .
They reminded the Judges that their sacred collective assignments given to them by Nigerians was to factually determine the true winner and losers of the 2023 presidential election, using the laid down rules and procedures.
“The awaiting verdict must be rooted in the ‘spirit and letters of the law’ and not cloaked in legal loopholes and technicalities” they warned, saying that a corrupt Judge is more dangerous than a mentally deranged person running amok with a sharp knife in a crowded market.
The groups said most Nigerian Judges since the return of democracy in the country almost always hide under the cloak of ” technicalities and political orbiters” as the ‘ratio decidend or facts derived from weak law or legal loopholes”.
The coalition is made up of four rights groups. They are the International College of Democracy and Human Rights, Enugu, the Eastern Democracy and Human Rights Coalition , Port Harcourt, the South East Coalition and Hunan Rights Organisations, Enugu and International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law ( Intersociety), Onitsha.
